On the eve of the primary battle in Mississippi and Alabama on Tuesday, Stewart knocked Romney's "Southern Strategy" and not-to-subtle "Southern-fried pandering" to Dixie sensibilities.

"This poor guy—figuratively speaking—contorting himself just to win a few votes," Stewart said.

Stewart began the segment with a primer on the notorious Southern Strategy by which Richard Nixon, playing on "racial fears" in the former Confederacy, won the White House in 1968 and effectively reshaped American electoral politics.

But according to Stewart, Romney's "Southern Strategy" owes less to Machiavellian political calculation and more to Jeff Foxworthy's stand-up schtick — a likely possibility, since the popular Georgia-born comic endorsed Romney and campaigned with him in Alabama.

"If you have a car on your front lawn 'cause your garage only holds five cars, if you go to the diner and order your eggs fabergé, if you think 'Cloverfield' was a movie about your butler — you might be a Romney," Stewart joked.